Traveling Thoughts

I don’t think I ever wrote about the beginning of NaBloPoMo. November 1st was the beginning of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Basically, the idea was to make a post every day, and you know what, I managed it, in fact, on some days I more than managed it. I won’t pretend that it was easy though, it wasn’t. I know that on some days I have a lot to say, but then there are the other days where I don’t have so much to say. And on those days, the days I didn’t have much to say, it was hard to write…but I DID IT! I made it through a month of posting…and you know what, I’m excited that it’s over…last night even, I was feeling that I needed to take a break from blogging…I’ve temporarily lost my love for it…I need to go get the good feelings for it back, I gotta find my light, my bright spot…that bloggin’ feeling, i’ve lost it, can you hear Tom Cruise singin’ it?

There was a post made over on TechCrunch today concerning the recent drops in Google PR and it’s relation to PPP and how posties are freaking out about it, blah blah blah. (see: PayPerPost Users Freaking Out Over Google PageRank Nuke)

I’m kindof on the wall between the good and evil of this post.

For starters, this post has got posties with panties now in a twist. But that doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that they’re complaining about Arrington and how evil he is evil and how he’s using posties as an example, but yet do we take a moment to think that we the posties are the ones fueling his fire. There’s not many threads in the General Discussion area of the PPP boards that can’t be turned into blog fodder, and actually 90% could be combined because they’re all the same thing. He can only say what he’s saying because in general all that happens on the PPP boards is bitching a moaning. Rarely are we jumping for joy on those forums, they’re (read: the forums) a depressing piece of work.

Nothing has been done since the drops in PR except bitching and moaning, crying, complaining, and oh woe is me. PR is what it is, it’s Google’s beast and since none of us are Google what happens happens. We can sit and bitch and moan about how PR is affecting what we do or don’t make (read: $$$) or we can “suck up and deal” (thanks Cass) and go on with our normal lives writing on our blogs. Our blogs weren’t born for money they were born for us, for us to write, for us to express opinions, for us to share. If that’s not the case, then we are no different than what Arrington is making us out to be.

In fact, we are what he’s making us out to be, we are the “shills” he’s calling us. How many times are we writing about products because of the cash and not because it’s something we’ve used or would ever use. It happens on all of our blogs. You can’t get pissed off at him because he’s speaking the truth, he’s just speaking it in an unfavorable light. He’s just speaking the “bad” truth instead of the “good” truth (if that’s even the proper thing to say).

I will point out that he didn’t directly call anyone “pathetic” so much as he pointed out that our comments are “pathetic” which I will agree with him on. What we as bloggers are experiencing with PPP is no different than what we’d be experiencing out there with a (so-called) real job. Things change, they always have, they always will, jobs are threatened daily and there is no such thing as job security. The question becomes, do you stay at the job no matter how much or how little you make because you love it or do you leave for a “better” job which pays higher and has better benefits.

And just because I’m on a roll, I need to throw in a couple words about RealRank…posties have done nothing but complain about that since it came into place, oh my RR is zero (well do you have traffic), oh my RR changes daily (yeah, that’s the realness of it), well there’s this problem and that problem, blah blah blah…Are we going to continue being his fodder or are we as workers for IZEA going to start spreading the good that this company is doing instead of painting it in a bad light. Because that’s what we’re doing on a daily basis.

Instead of proving Arrington right, we need to prove him wrong, and the only way to do that is to stop bitching and moaning, to not worry about our so called impending death because of PR, to roll with the punches as they come, and continue what we do best, blog.

You know, it doesn’t happen often, but it’s happening tonight. I’m just plumb wore out. My mouth aches, I’ve got a belly ache, and mom’s treating me like I have some infectious disease all because I was vomiting. Probably TMI for you, but you know what, this is all I have to say. I’m going to actually leave the entry as is, and go to bed. I’m entitled right? And if it weren’t for NaBloPoMo I wouldn’t have written to you tonight anyhow.

The trip to the periodontist was uneventful. I couldn’t feel a thing, I had my earbuds in and All American Rejects blasting in my ears. When I left, I couldn’t feel a thing. By the time I got to my side of town and through the traffic, I was starting to feel. I wasn’t all that thrilled. I had a prescription for vicodin and I was going to take it to Walgreens but there was no way I was going to get it fast enough.

I had to stand in line behind some woman that took forever just to hand it in. They told me it would be 30 minutes, so I went next door to walmart to get some myoplex since I can’t exactly eat. I came back, it had been 30 minutes, 40 actually, I got in line, and stood their. I couldn’t speak very well, I mean, I have packing on the right side of the underside of my roof of my mouth and I have packing on the outside of the right side of my gums and I was slightly dehydrated, speaking, wasn’t happening. I get up there, give her my visa, cause she didn’t get my name when i said it and said my prescription wouldn’t be ready until 5:23. I told her that I was told that it was going to be 30 min when I came in, it had now been 40 minutes. I wish I could’ve smacked this lady, she rolled her eyes, who the hell rolls their eyes at clients. I pay her salary with all the drugs I come in and buy every month…

So, I had to sit and wait, and like 15 min goes by and they call my name, so I hop back in line and wait, 10 minutes…by this time, it’s 5:15…I get up there, and she asks to see my license, they’ve never needed to see my license, and her comment is “a law was passed last week and we’re required to see licenses for all controlled substances” my thought was, by the time I get out of here, it won’t be controlled anymore, and I’ll need a beer to wash it down…I was like fine, whatever, I’ll get you a license, it was a $2 prescription, 8 pills, I didn’t need a license for it, it was a cash transaction.

So I go get my license, I come back in, and I have to stand in line, again…This time, 10 minutes later, 5:30 now, an hour and a half since I got out of the periodontist’s office, and 30 minutes past the time the dentist said the anesthesia would wear off. I’m beginning to not be able to tolerate anything, I’ve got no patience, I just want to go home and I’m fighting the battle of the all too common anymore walgreens pharmacy. I tell the guy that they should posts a sign saying that id’s are now required when picking up controlled substances so that we know and don’t waste our time in lines several times over in a night. His response “we just ask when you get up here, you drove in, you should have it” I was so pissed off…I got my drugs and left…

I really hate walgreens.

It’s Tuesday and I must say that I’ve been waiting since last Tuesday to write/release this post. This is week 2 in what’s promising to be something great, Top Secret Tuesday. If I didn’t explain it, which it’s possible that I didn’t, cause I don’t remember doing so, Top Secret Tuesday is the day, so chosen by muah, to blog about something your readers don’t know about you. Now, if some of your readers are your friends this may be difficult, but it’s all good, pretend they don’t read your blog and blog on. You following me? Good. Now back to Spartacus.

This story begins 4 years ago. I was having a fit because I wanted a new car. The old one was paid off so therefore it was time for a new car. It made perfect sense to me. But a good friend decided that she had heard enough of how courtney needed a new car, there was nothing wrong with my car, there was no reason to take and throw myself into debt again, so she told me to name him, if he had a name I would like him better, him being the old car. So naming of the things I own began, the car was named Mudpie, because I insisted on going 4-wheeling in my 1997 Ford Contour and rarely washed him, because why wash him if he was just going to get dirty again

So, I name everything, and everything I own is a “he” and each and every “he” has a name.

My insulin pump is Onyx
My laptop is Samson
My music external hdd is Leo
My data external hdd is Artemis
My wireless router is Zeus
My new car is Pegasus (yes, I finally got a new one, and he’s fast)
And my newest toy, my iTouch is Spartacus

There’s a whole lot more love going around when I name my stuff, it gives it a sense of belonging and it gives me a sense of…I dunno…but it’s really no different than Batman, he named everything, his lair was the Batcave, his car the Batmobile, he had a Batphone…everything was bat[thing]. I name my electronics…it usually happens fairly soon after opening the box and checking out it’s personality…

It will be a travesty if Mel B. doesn’t win.

So, I’ve done some crazy things in my time, piercings, tattoos, jumping out of planes. I’m not skeered of much.

I am skeered of getting my gums grafted, which I’m having done on Wednesday. I’ve only put it off for 3 years and I can’t wait any longer or I’m endangering my teeth roots. I thought I was ok with this, I thought that with the new periodontist that wasn’t going to scrape the gum off the roof of my mouth but instead take it from behind the tooth and wrap it around that I’d be in a better state of being.

I was in a better state of being, I have been for the last couple of months, I was cool with it. Now though, now that it’s 2 days away, I’m freakin skeered, this is my mouth, I’m not going to be able to drink from straws for a couple months, I have to say good bye to my electronic toothbrush for that whole side of my mouth on the top row, solids, I don’t know when I’m going to be able to eat solids, I don’t know how long it’s going to take it to heal, it’s like a month for a normal healthy person that doesn’t have a autoimmune disease.

I really don’t want to go get this done. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like Wednesday afternoon, they’re gonna have to give me a tranquilizer. I’m gonna be sitting in the chair like a big baby, kicking and screaming and crying.

And the worse thing about it, they can’t graft the gum around both teeth at the same time, I have to get one done now and one done later…I think I’m pre-traumatized.

*hangs head and pouts*

I’ve sat in front of my computer all day today working on posts for my blog. I have 9 in the works, and one masterpiece. Of the 9 non-masterpieces, I’m so unsatisfied with them at this point that they’re deemed unfinished and will not be released until I’m satisfied with them, which means it’s quite possible they never get released. The masterpiece, well, it is a masterpiece and it will be released when the time comes. But until then, I’m all about quality lately and it’s a result of the blogs I read, and me being all about quality brings up an issue. It’s an issue that I’ve seen far to often on blogs that I read and it makes me wonder, am I doing the same thing I loathe. Am I pushing out posts in great quantity and are they lacking in quality. In the past I’d definitely say yes, as of lately I would definitely say no. But I’m the writer and that makes me biased right?

But you, you are the reader, and if I’ve not bored you to tears thus far with this entry and you haven’t closed this window or closed this entry from your RSS reader, I want to know what you think. You read my blog for a reason, what is it about my blog that draws you back day after day to see if I’ve written something new?

Do I have a quality blog? What is your definition of quality? What is it that you look for in the blogs that you read? Am I meeting your needs as a blog reader?

Now, I realize that I write my blog for me, and that there will be days where you’re like, what the hell, why is she writing about this, I don’t care about this, but if you could just get past those entries, or maybe there’s something about those entries that I could write differently.

I’m asking for you, as my reader, to give me an honest opinion. Please take the time to help me out as a blogger and let me know what you think of my blog and why you read it and what you think I could do better. I don’t want to become one of the bloggers that I hate, and I know I can prevent that. But if I could, I’d like to prevent becoming one of the bloggers you hate. Please, leave me your thoughts, let me know what you think.

I have to get a “ballroom fancy” gown for the company Christmas party and I’ll be damned if I’m taking mom shopping with me…

I love the snow, and last night, the snow came, and I’m cool with it. I’m cool with it because I have an opinion about the cold weather, if it’s going to be cold, it should be snowing. And so it’s snowing, after 9 months of me being able to wear shorts, it’s snowing. While I appreciate that it’s snowing because it’s cold, I’ve realized that I wish it wasn’t cold. The cold weather is cramping my lifestyle. I can’t bike if it’s cold because it kills me, injuries come easier, but it strains my muscles and it hurts my lungs. If I can’t bike, I’m just not happy, biking is what makes my life good, it relieves stress, it keeps me healthy and in shape. Biking is my chi. Ok, I strayed, let me back up from cycling and back to the snow.

It’s snowing:

And when it’s snowing, I feel the need to go play in the snow:

And when I get done playing, it looks like this (in one spot at least):

So, I love the snow. I love when I get to play in the snow. I love when the snow makes it so that I can’t go to work, it’s a beautiful thing.